Door balancer construction



March 30, 1965 A. L. MOORE 3,175,761

DOOR BALANCER CONSTRUCTION Filed March 16. 1964 INVENTOR Arc/vie L.Moore ATTORNEY nite States This invention relates to a door balancerconstruction and has for an object to provide a construction forbalancing a door of a box like storage member, such as a mail box or thelike, to maintain and hold it in either opened or closed position, sothat, when the door has been hinged to the open position, it will remainbalanced in the opened position, and when it has been hinged to theclosed position, it will remain in the closed position.

A further object of this invention is to provide a door balancerconstruction applicable to mail boxes or other box like members, whetherfood container boxes for use in the home or elsewhere, or even large boxlike members such as garages or other similar buildings used for storageor other purposes wherever it may be desired to maintain a door inopened and closed positions at different times.

In brief, this invention comprises a box like storage or containermember, such as a mail box or the like, having a door opening at one endand binge bars pivoted at their door ends to the door at its top and atits opposite sides adjacent its bottom ends, and pivoted at their otherends to the roof and to the mid points of the opposite vertical sides ata suitable distance from the door opening end thereof, with a hollowtube lever closed at both its ends and connected at its fulcrum end toone side hinge bar at its side wall pivot end, and a ball weightrollable within the hollow tube lever to hold the door opened or closed,the ball rolling down to the fulcrum hinge bar pivoted end, to hold itclosed, and by rolling down to the opposite closed end of the hollowtube to thus counterbalance the weight of the door and hold it opened.

With the above and related objects in view, this invention consists inthe details of construction and combination of parts, as will be morefully understood from the following description, when read inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a mail box to which this invention hasbeen applied.

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of FIG. 1, partly broken away, and showingthe opened position of the door in dot-dash outline.

FIG. 3 is a partly sectional and partly elevational view, taken on therear side of FIGS. 1 and 2.

There is shown at a box like parallelepiped shaped member, such as amail box or the like, consisting of a floor 12 suitably supported as ona post 14. The box 10 has a rear wall 16, opposite vertically extendingside walls 18 and 20, a top wall or roof 22, here shown as somewhatcurved or arched, the better to shed rain or snow, and an open door endclosable by a door 24.

The door 24 is hinged to the box 10 by at least three hinge bars 26, 28and 30, each hinge bar being pivoted at one end to the door 24 and attheir other end to the box 10. As shown, the top hinge bar 26 isconnected to the top edge of the door 24 by a pivot 32 and to the topwall or roof 22 by a pivot 34 at a distance from the open end equal tothe length of the hinge bar 26.

One side hinge bar 28 is connected at one end to one vertical side edgeof the door 24 adjacent its bottom end by a pivot 36 and at its otherend to a pivot 38 located at about a mid point on the vertical side wall18. The other side hinge bar 30 is similarly connected at one end to apivot 40 similarly located on the opposite side edge of door 24 adjacentits bottom end. The other end of hinge bar 30 is connected to a pivot 42similarly atent located on the opposite vertical side wall 20 at asimilarly located mid point.

Extending from at least one side hinge bar, such as the side hinge bar30 beyond the pivot 42 and in straight line alignment therewith, is alever comprising a hollow tube 44, closed at both its ends, andcontaining a ball Weight 46 therein rollable between both its closedends. Obviously, if desired, a similar tube lever and ball weight may beprovided on the other side hinge bar 28.

In operation, the door 24 may be moved between its closed position shownat 24 and against gravity to its opened position shown at 24' before itpasses dead center position in either direction whenever desired. Whenthe door is closed as at 24, the tube lever 44 is raised so as to slantdown toward the fulcrum end of the hinge pivot 42, causing the ball toroll to the fulcrum end of the lever 44 to the position at 46. With theball weight 46 in this position, there is insufficient lifting force onthe lever 44, and the door remains closed.

However, whenever the door 24 is lifted on its hinge bars 26, 2S and 30to the opened position at 24, the lever or tube 44 is moved to theposition 44' slanting down away from its fulcrum end to its oppositeend, with the ball rolled to the position at 46', and thus providessufficient leverage to counterbalance the weight of the door 24 and itshinge bars 26, 28 and 30 and hold it in such opened position againstgravity before it passes dead center position. The door is moved betweenits opened and closed positions either manually or by any other suitablemeans not forming part of this invention. As shown, the door 24 may havea weather protecting flange 48 to overlap the ends of the roof 22 andvertical side walls 18 and 20, and when this flange is present, thepivots 32, 36 and 46 may be mounted on this flange 48, which in effectconstitutes the edges of the door 24.

Although this invention has been described in considerable detail, suchdescription is intended as being illustrative rather than limiting,since the invention may be variously embodied, and the scope of theinvention is to be determined as claimed.

Having thus set forth and disclosed the nature of this invention, whatis claimed is:

1. A door balancer construction comprising a box like member having adoor opening at one vertically extending end, a door for closing saidopening, hinge means pivotally connected to said door at the top edgethereof at one end of said hinge means and also pivotally connected tosaid box like member on the horizontal top side thereof at a distancefrom the door opening end thereof, additional hinge means pivoted toopposite edges of said door adjacent the bottom end thereof and alsopivotally connected to said box like member on the vertically extendingopposite sides thereof at a point between the top and bottom of said boxlike member, a lever connected at its fulcrum end to said hinge meansbeyond the pivotal connection of said hinge means to the verticallyextending side of said box like member, and a weight member movablealong said lever between the fulcrum end of said lever and the oppositeend thereof to thereby change the leverage effect of said lever topermit the door to remain in closed position with the weight moved tothe fulcrum end of said lever and to counterbalance and hold the door inopen position against gravity and before dead center position of thedoor with the weight moved to the opposite end of said lever, said levercomprising a hollow tube closed at both its ends, said weight comprisinga ball rollable within said hollow tube lever between its closed ends,said lever and said hinge bar being in a straight line.

2. A mail box door balancer construction comprising a substantiallyparallelepiped mail box having a door opening at one end, a door forclosing said door opening, and means for hinging said door to said mailbox and for maintaining said door in either open or closed positioncomprising a hinge bar pivoted to the top end of said door at one endand to a pivot mounted on the top of said mail box at a distance fromthe door opening end thereof, hinge bars pivoted at one of their ends tothe opposite side edges of said door adjacent the bottom end thereof andat the other of their ends to the opposite vertical sides of said mailbox at a point substantially mid way between the top and bottom thereof,and a hollow tube lever closed at both ends and connected at its fulcrumend to one of said side wall hinge bars in a straight line therewith,and a ball weight rollable within said hollow tube lever rolling downtoward the fulcrum end when the door is closed, permitting the door toremain in closed position, and rolling down to the opposite end when thedoor is opened, counterbalancing the door against gravity to hold itopened before dead center position.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS FRANK B. SHERRY,Primary Examiner.

2. A MAIL BOX DOOR BALANCER CONSTRUCTION COMPRISING A SUBSTANTIALLYPARALLELEPIPED MAIL BOX HAVING A DOOR OPENING AT ONE END, A DOOR FORCLOSING SAID DOOR OPENING AND MEANS FOR HINGING SAID DOOR TO SAID MAILBOX AND FOR MAINTAINING SAID DOOR IN EITHER OPEN OR CLOSED POSITIONCOMPRISING A HINGE BAR PIVOTED TO THE TOP END OF SAID DOOR AT ONE ENDAND TO A PIVOT MOUNTED ON THE TOP OF SAID MAIL BOX AT A DISTANCE FROMTHE DOOR OPENING END THEREOF, HINGE BARS PIVOTED AT ON OF THEIR ENDS TOTHE OPPOSITE SIDE EDGES OF SAID DOOR ADJACENT THE BOTTOM END THEREOF ANDAT THE OTHER OF THEIR ENDS TO THE OPPOSITE VERTICAL SIDES OF SAID MAILBOX AT A POINT SUBSTANTIALLY MID WAY BETWEEN THE TOP AND BOTTOM THEREOF,AND A HOLLOW TUBE LEVER CLOSED AT BOTH ENDS AND CONNECTED AT ITS FULCRUMEND TO ONE OF SAID SIDE WALL HINGE BARS IN A STRAIGHT LINE THEREWITH,AND A BALL WEIGHT ROLLABLE WITHIN SAID HOLLOW TUBE LEVER ROLLING DOWNTOWARD THE FULCRUM END WHEN THE DOOR IS CLOSED, PERMITTING THE DOOR TOREMAIN IN CLOSED POSITION, AND ROLLING DOWN TO THE OPPOSITE END WHEN THEDOOR IS OPENED, COUNTERBALANCING THE DOOR AGAINST GRAVITY TO HOLD ITOPENED BEFORE DEAD CENTER POSITION.